“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana

I’m grabbing this shot from my Las Vegas trip in November. We had driven up to Rhyolite – the old ghost town on the edge of Death Valley. This house is completely built out of bottles and cement. That’s a lot of bottles! I don’t know if they are wine bottles, or beer bottles. I just thought it was an interesting design.

I’ve had a lot going on since we’ve returned home from our two months away. One thing that is consuming my time is that I’ve decided to move my two blogs over from the WP.com format to a self hosted installation. It’s been one issue after another, and I’m still working on it . . . but hopefully I’ll have both Blogs seamlessly working on the new host soon. Meanwhile, there should be no disruption in your ability to access my content on the WP.com platform.

I’m also nearing the end of my 365 Project. I can’t believe that a whole year has gone by, and I have a written and visual record of it. Stay tuned for what’s next . . .

“To be a photographer, one must photograph. No amount of book learning, no checklist of seminars attended, can substitute for the simple act of making pictures. Experience is the best teacher of all. And for that, there are no guarantees that one will become an artist. Only the journey matters…” Harry Callahan

Viva Las Vegas . . . Day Two. We drove in a caravan out to Death Valley today. We spent most of the afternoon exploring Rhyolite, a small ghost town on the edge of Death Valley. I could have spent the entire day there – it was that interesting. There were old buildings and rail cars, and a very eclectic Museum with very interesting statues and artifacts. It’s really a Photographers paradise. We spread from one end of the site to the other . . . all immersed in our own creative juices attempting to put our own unique spin on what we were documenting here. We didn’t actually make it in to Death Valley because we ran out of time . . . and it was very cold and overcast by time nightfall came. Our intention was to photograph the sunset, and then get some star trails . . . but that wasn’t going to happen with an overcast sky. Oh well . . . we left Rhyolite feeling very pleased with ourselves and wishing we’d had more time there!

This photo was taken in an old abandoned cabin. I applied some HDR processing, and tweaked a bit more in Photoshop.